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There's a short story in one of the early BL anthologies about a squad of marines jumping from a thunderhawk from a great height, and only using the jump pack to slow their descent enough not to kill them on landing. They still hit the ork horde that was the target with the same impact as an artillery barrage, and proceeded to dump the packs as they were now just too clumsy.
As to the point about the seemingly more efficient IG packs, they only have to carry a tiny fraction of the weight that a SM pack must be able to lift, therefore it's easier to make them that bit more efficient.
I see the marine ones as similar to booster rockets on a missile. A simple system of getting a payload to a target as quickly as possible. It doesn't need to do anything else. There's other units more capable and better suited to dealing with any other task
As to the point about the seemingly more efficient IG packs, they only have to carry a tiny fraction of the weight that a SM pack must be able to lift, therefore it's easier to make them that bit more efficient.
I see the marine ones as similar to booster rockets on a missile. A simple system of getting a payload to a target as quickly as possible. It doesn't need to do anything else. There's other units more capable and better suited to dealing with any other task